Storytime Helps Build Literacy Skills

Updated on May 5, 2013

Reading to a young child is an important part of his or her cognitive development. A supplement to reading, such as storytime and visiting the library or bookstore on a regular basis, plays an even larger role in helping build literacy skills.

Source

Introducing Books at an Early Age Is Key

A report by the National Early Literacy Panel concludes that the writing and reading skills a child develops between birth and five years old impacts his or her conventional literacy skills later in life. The study also points to six attributes or building blocks of early literacy skills that also have a great impact on a child's development of reading and writing. Since most children don't attend school before the age of four or five, it is important for them to develop these skills at home or elsewhere.

Public libraries and bookstores across the country offer a variety of sessions or storytimes dedicated to teaching young ones about books and how their stories can improve a child's love for reading and writing. If a child learns about reading and other literacy skills at an early age, the further ahead he or she is when it comes time to start school.

About Storytime

Storytime is typically a free program offered by public libraries and local bookstores as a way for parents to introduce their children to reading and language. Besides listening to a story, there are also a variety of activities that help promote development and learning. Each level of storytime has age-appropriate activities such as playing with puppets, listening, dancing and singing to music and doing arts and crafts.

2 comments

Listening to stories and being read too is vital to stimulate a child. I have read that every family should take a year and do little formal education, but read for hours on end about every thing imaginable. Can you imagine if a child was read to for a few hours every day how much they would have in their little minds to stimulate creative thinking?

Lovely hub. Vote up, interesting, usual and awesome.

anusha15 4 years ago from Delhi, India

Indeed Story time is a crucial part of child's life. Apart from improving literacy skills, the story time can also play an important role in improving child's awareness about the culture (with folk tales) and off course, write messages through stories will have a great impact on moral values. Interesting hub!